More than 18,000 in England still without power two days after storm

LONDON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- More than 18,000 customers in parts of England remained without electricity two days after the worst storm in more than a decade hit the country, officials say.

The storm left four people dead and power companies said electricity had been disrupted for nearly 650,000 customers, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

UK Power Networks said Wednesday some 15,000 properties in the east of England and 3,500 in the south still had no power. Officials said they hoped to restore power to 98 percent of their customers by the end of the day.

UK Power Networks said it was sending vans with hot food and drinks to customers in six counties still affected by the outage.

Some 1,000 engineers were working on repairs and helicopters were checking overhead power lines.

All rail service was back to normal, except for the route between St. Albans Abbey and Watford Junction where engineers said the storm had caused structural damage to the overhead lines.

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